THE LONDON CHARTERHOUSE
private tour
and
short architectural walk round Charterhouse Square
and
study visit to
St Bartholomew the Great Church
Optional Lunch in the Art Nouveau gastropub,
the Fox and Anchor
Friday 16 October
A cornucopia of delights awaits us on this special day: a private tour of one of the great medieval survivals among Tudor buildings in London. We visit the oldest church in the City, St Bartholomew the Great, where worship has taken place for over 900 years dating back to 1123. We study the architecture of Smithfield and Charterhouse Square, the latter rendered infamous by its appearance on the TV series as the habitation of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot who lived in a block of flats there.
As its name suggests, the Charterhouse takes its name from a Carthusian Priory founded in 1371. In common with numerous such sets of buildings in England at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it was rebuilt as a splendid Tudor courtyard house. Bought in 1611 by ‘the wealthiest commoner in England’, coal magnate Thomas Sutton, it was established as a school and an almshouse. The school was relocated to Godalming in 1872, but the almshouse remained in London. Today accommodation and fellowship to over 40 Brothers, including women, is offered.
Historically, the London Charterhouse is a microcosm of London, reflecting the upheavals of its history from the Middle Ages to the 20c. Its gardens, Great Hall where brothers have eaten since 1614, Great Chamber where Elizabeth I and James I held court prior to their coronations, a cloister dating back to the medieval monastery, Jacobean chapel and museum telling its long history are all included on this tour which is exclusive to us.
We will be well looked after on this tour. We will be given refreshments before the tour by a Charterhouse guide followed by a short walk around the square before entering St Bartholomew- the- Great, all with Nicholas Friend. St Bartholomew-the-Great is not just great to distinguish it from St Bartholomew-the-Less, its nearby sister-church; nor is it remarkable just because it is the oldest parish church in London. It has the most turbulent history of any church in London.
Founded in 1123, reputedly by a Jester at the court of Henry I who later took the cloth, in the 13c it was the subject of extreme violence at the hands of a chain-mailed Archbishop of Canterbury demanding taxes; it was later the church adjacent to the site of the martyrdom of 45 Protestants at Smithfield; it survived the Great Fire of London due to the thickness of the Priory walls; it was the workplace of a young Benjamin Franklin; Hogarth was baptised here; John Wesley preached here; its Victorian vestry closed the workhouse believing poverty was good for you; WG Grace worshipped here; its Second World War curate kicked bombs off the roof and saved it; and it was a setting for Hugh Grant and company in Four Weddings and a Funeral. With its stolid Norman columns, its 14c Lady Chapel, and its Tudor porch raised over a 13c doorway, its walls have borne witness to the history of London.
BOOKING INFORMATION
10.45 am for 11.00 please meet Nicholas at the EASTERN ENTRANCE of Farringdon Station, at junction of Long Lane and Lindsey Street, for the 5 minute walk to the Charterhouse.
1.15 pm: Day ends with directions back to Farringdon Station or optional lunch in adjacent gastropub the Fox and Anchor
Cost: including exclusive tour of London Charterhouse with refreshments, followed by short architectural walk, and a detailed study visit of St Bartholomew-the-Great, with church donation: £95 members, £105 non-members.
Henry Moore
(1898-1986)
KEW GARDENS
Richmond
Monday 19 October
For powerful expression of human and other existential relationships, no master sculptor can match the bronze behemoths of Henry Moore. He adroitly makes visible the ambiguous connections between forms as they reach forward and back simultaneously, a brilliant reminder of the organic push-pull of all relational encounters. Near his studio in Hertfordshire, he set his work in rolling fields of sheep. He intended that his work be choreographed with a carpet of grass, the curves and bends of trees, under an infinity of sky, and in all sorts of weather.
Enter Kew Gardens as the site he might most approve of for the largest ever presentation of his outdoor works. In the sublime and undulating acres of Kew Gardens, the sculptures seem truly ageless, eternal sentries, like Stonehenge or the Great Pyramid in Egypt. At one with a backdrop of the curved rooves of the Palm House and the equally massive umbrellas of trees and bushes, the sculptures are placed within sight of one another, a hundred or so yards apart. We are invited to follow a carefully curated circuit of remarkable sculptural experiences that range from the maternal to the military.
We begin in the Sherwood Gallery to study his maquettes and drawings that together spawned his majestic bronzes. On this study morning we discover and rediscover how Henry Moore was not only a master in expressing distinctions in gestures and form, but also of a surprising range of emotions from the tentative to the passionate. We rediscover Henry Moore, a master-sculptor not only for the half-century between 1930 and 1970, but for all time and all seasons. Don’t miss this extraordinary opportunity to walk amongst the eternal made manifest like an astounding piece of music or a perfect painting.
11.15 Please meet at the VICTORIA GATE, near Kew Gardens station
1.15 Morning ends with optional lunch in the Botanical Brasserie in the Gardens near Victoria Gate
Cost: £95 per person members, £105 non-members, excluding lunch but including entrance to Kew Gardens (£25, booked by us in advance).
MIDDLE TEMPLE
London
Tour of Temple Church
Lunch in Middle Temple Hall
Wednesday 21 October
The four London Inns of Court – the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Lincoln’s Inn, and Gray’s Inn – have the exclusive right to call barristers to the Bar of England and Wales. Dating back to the 14th century these self-contained precincts served as educational and residential hubs where they slept, ate, and trained. Like the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge in their respective cities, they offer a quiet refreshing retreat from London’s hustle and bustle.
Sharing the Temple area with Inner Temple, the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple came about when a papal Bull of 1207 forbade clerics from practicing law in the City of London. Compounding this deterrent in 1284 Henry III banned institutes of legal education within the City of London! Intrepid lawyers moved to the area around Fleet Street, beyond the jurisdiction of the City and within easy reach of the royal courts at Westminster. By the early 14c, with the fall from grace of the Knights Templar, Edward II granted their lands (and their fine circular Romanesque church) to the Knights Hospitaller, who leased it to lawyers, who eventually organised themselves into the ‘Inner Temple’ and ‘Middle Temple’.
Though the Middle Temple was badly affected by a fire in 1679 and then by the Blitz, there remain beautiful buildings of the 16c-18c, placed around open courtyards, gardens and lanes. We take an informed stroll through this environment of great charm and historic interest, an oasis in the western City of London. In the 1950s, the medieval Romanesque and Gothic Temple Church was elegantly restored by Walter Godfrey. Awe-inspiring Middle Temple Hall of 1573, where we have lunch, escaped significant damage and remains one of the greatest examples of Elizabethan dining halls in the whole of Great Britain! It is a privilege to be guests of the Middle Temple and to sit where the first performance of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night took place. Please join us for an unforgettable morning and lunch!
BOOKING INFORMATION
11.15 Please meet outside Temple Church –nearest
stations are Temple and Blackfriars
1.00 Lunch in Middle Temple Hall
2.30 Day ends
Cost: £95 including lunch in Temple Hall and tour by Nicholas Friend
This programme of events has been initiated, designed and developed by Louise Friend and will be presented by Nicholas Friend. Cheques are not a viable option at this time. Instead, please make your payment to Friend&Friend Ltd by bank transfer to our account with Metrobank, bank sort code 23-05-80, account number 13291721 or via PayPal to nicholas@inscapetours.co.uk, or credit/debit card by phone to Henrietta on 07940 719 397. She is available by phone Tuesdays and Thursdays 2-5 pm.
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